Whistle tweets

Tag: Titans

Both professional hockey and professional basketball had problems with bench clearing brawls 20 to 25 years ago. Both leagues adopted strong policies that included player suspensions, coach suspensions, player fines and franchise fines.

A lofty punt by Cowboys punter Chris Jones appeared to scrape the bottom of the massive video screen hovering over the field at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. When the video board was installed in 2009, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said it would be unlikely to be hit by a punted ball. In the stadium’s…

Snowy conditions make one grade inconclusive Football Zebras Roundtable As the snow blew through four games this weekend, there were a flurry of close, questionable, and controversial calls. To help us understand the Week 14 calls, former officiating supervisors Larry Upson and Jim Daopoulos took a look at a few plays. It does not look…

7 known suspensions of officials for on-field incidents The NFL rarely has suspended officials for their conduct on the field, although it is possible that some may have occurred without public knowledge. Also, there are two known cases of officials (not included here) who were originally assigned to the Super Bowl and had that assignment…

Football Zebras Roundtable We had a few calls this week that were borderline judgement calls. How close were they? Former NFL officiating supervisors Jim Daopoulos and Larry Upson helped us unpack three controversial calls from Week 5. Both Larry and Jim did extensive game video while working in the league office. Their analysis determined the…

Image: Dallas Cowboys photo First, our quick calls [Football Zebras] The pink penalty flags did cause some confusion with the players’ pink towels, all symbolic for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. However, a clock operator briefly stopped the clock because one of the pink towels looked like a penalty flag. I wouldn’t be surprised if this…

Last year it was a rash of inadvertent whistles. This year the officials are having trouble enforcing penalties. Former NFL vice president for officiating and current Fox Sports rules analyst Mike Pereira says the officials missed two penalty enforcements in two different games on Sunday. Pereira broke down the play in Minneapolis where Bill Leavy’s crew…

Football is one of the most team-oriented games in the world. It is a joy to watch a team function on the field as a well-oiled machine as they work to win the game. The seven-person third team on the field must also function as a well-oiled machine to give the teams, fans and…

A roundup of the calls from Sunday Bill Leavy’s crew has a very visible downgrade coming their way. The attention it received swooned mostly due to the fact that Mike Pereira — Leavy’s former boss and current Fox Sports rules analyst — pointed it out during the game broadcast and that the ensuing play scored…

Did you see a call in the kickoff weekend that needs our attention? Let us know in the comments or tweet us @footballzebras. We have the week 1 assignments and the crew lists available for your review.